NASCAR Cup Series — Race No. 29 — 500 laps / 266.5 miles
Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) — Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for September 15-16, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 11 sets for the race (10 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-5170; Right-side — D-5206
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side — 2,276 mm (89.61 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 16 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi; Right Front — 46 psi; Right Rear — 44 psi
Storyline — Goodyear continues efforts to tune tires to Next Gen car: As NASCAR Cup Series teams continue to advance their car set-ups with the Next Gen car, Goodyear continues to fine tune its tire set-ups as we return to some race tracks for their second race. Goodyear held a successful tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway in June in preparation for this weekend‘s race. The result is a change to the right-side tire, with both construction and compound changes compared to the 2022 race on the track‘s concrete surface. The compound change is designed to introduce more tire wear and more lap-time fall-off, both of which will make tire management a bigger part of the race for drivers and promote more passing throughout the field.
“Getting tire wear on concrete track surfaces is always a difficult proposition,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear‘s director of racing. “The consistency and relative smoothness of concrete doesn‘t promote a lot of wear, so that is something we are always working on at places like Bristol and Dover and Nashville. We had a great test at Bristol this year and we came out of that with a new right-side tire where we not only rolled in a construction update, but also changed the tread compound to wear and fall off more. That will help the racing that the fans see as drivers manage their tires throughout a run, with some guys going out hard and others that will be stronger at the end of a run.”
Notes — New right-side tire for Cup teams at Bristol: Being on 18-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series at Bristol this week . . . this is the same left-side tire code Cup teams ran on the Bristol concrete last September . . . this is the first time these teams have run this right-side tire code . . . compared to last year‘s race, this right-side features a construction update and a compound change (more wear and fall-off) . . . this tire set-up came out of a Goodyear test at Bristol on June 20-21 . . . teams (drivers) participating in that test were the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet (Ross Chastain), No. 12 Penske Racing Ford (Ryan Blaney) and No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Ty Gibbs) . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars do not run inner liners in any of their tires.
NASCAR Xfinity Series — Race No. 27 — 300 laps / 159.9 miles
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — Race No. 20 — 200 laps / 106.6 miles
Bristol Motor Speedway (0.533-mile oval) — Bristol, Tenn.
Fast Facts for September 14-15, 2023
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Xfinity: 5 sets for the event; Craftsman Truck: 5 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6106; Right-side — D-6132
Tire Circumference: Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.); Right-side — 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front — 20 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi; Right Front — 45 psi; Right Rear — 40 psi
Notes — Xfinity, Trucks return to Bristol concrete on ‘22 tire set-up: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Bristol this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires that teams in both of these series ran on the Bristol concrete last fall . . . this left-side tire code is unique to the Bristol concrete, though these teams have run this left-side code at Auto Club (Xfinity only), Darlington (both series), Dover (Xfinity only) and Pocono (both series) this season . . . unlike on most NASCAR ovals one mile or less in length, Xfinity and Truck teams will run inner liners in their right-side tires only at Bristol.
— Goodyear Racing —
